Last night I completed a shell that I LOVE (so does my husband ) but this was only after a full day of finishing the edges with two rows of single crochets.

When I ordered the materials and pattern there wasn't any indication that there would be so much crocheting involved. I am unabashedly a knitter. Yes, I understand that there are super finishes that involve *gasp* crocheting, but sheesh, warn a girl what to expect!

Have any others of you been blindsided by a knitting project becoming a crocheting project?

A few years back I knit a sleeveless shell. Being a new knitter, I only looked at the picture and didn't read the pattern, so I didn't realize that the edging on the bottom and the arm holes was crochet. I didn't know how to crochet, so I took a brief beginning crochet class. I only learned single crochet, which was what I needed to finish the shell.

It turned out well, but I check the pattern more carefully now!

__________________
~Knit for Charity~
"that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love" - Col. 2:2

The current project I am working on (Ms.Marigold) has crocheted ruffles on the sleeves, but thankfully I am going to do the alternative finishing of ribbing instead. I usually read through a pattern before deciding to do it since I have never crocheted a stitch in my life!

I do both, and don't find either difficult, but you can crochet without using a hook. After I watched the Knitty Gritty where...darn it, there went her name again; she's far more famous for crochet than knitting--demonstrate what she did when she wanted to crochet a granny square and had no hook, it made perfect sense.

I'm trying to write up some directions now, but have to find time to sit down with the yarn and see if they're right. If they are, you're not limited to single crochet edgings. You could do any combination of crochet stitches AND any combination of knit stitches, even in the same row. If any of you can try it, see if this works for a sc edging. I THINK it amounts to--
Row 1: knit the first stitch on your bind-off row,
knit the second stitch,
knit the two loops on your right-hand needle together, and keep going across.
Row 2 (you should have only one loop left on your needle:
Knit that stitch. Pick up the next stitch (i.e. draw up a loop) and knit the two stitches together. Keep going all the way across, then finish off.

__________________Becky

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YES! That's her. I don't know why her name won't stick in my head when she's so...Lily! She's so good I think she could talk the yarn into knitting or crocheting itself.

I tried my own directions when I had a minute. Yes, it works. So does throwing chain stitches into the middle of a row and picking them up the way you would in knit, putting double crochets in odd places...it all works, so go for it. And just so no hardcore crocheters think I'm ignoring the reverse, I learned to knit on two afghan hooks and have taught a couple of people that way. (In fact, if you have some really slippery, pain in the tuckus yarn, it works great.)

Heehee, I'm reading through one of Lily's books right now (Knit and Crochet with Beads). I've found it frustrating because several of the patterns that I like are for Crochet, which I haven't learnt to do yet.
Hopefully "Happy Hooker" by Debbie Stoller will come through my Library Resevation soon and she'll help me through anything harder than "finger chains"
A couple of other patterns I have in my "too hard" pile require crochet-and that's why they're staying there!